This invention relates to an improved roller chock.
Rope and cable fastening devices of the type called roller chocks are used in a number of applications on sailing craft. For example, they may be used to position spring lines to facilitate mooring the boat. Such chocks usually include a pair of rollers spaced apart from one another and secured to a base. The line from the mooring is passed between the rollers and made fast to a deck cleat mounted adjacent to the chock.
In many cases, the prior chocks are open at the top, consequently when the boat is underway sheets and halyards can become caught in the chocks causing inconveneince, particularly when the boat is being raced.
There are some prior roller chocks whose tops are closed to prevent the aforesaid problem.
In such cases, the closure is invariably in the form of a strap. In the past there has been a problem in providing such a strap which is suitably inexpensive, suitably light in weight, and also sufficiently strong to resist the high, rapidly varying stresses that can be exerted on the chock as a whole, as when a boat heaves at its mooring. Moreover, while all the above attributes are desirable, they should be achieved while subjecting a line passing through the roller chock to the other chock to as little abrasion or chafing as is possible.
In some sailing craft, it is often important to have a variable positioning capability for some chocks. For example, when the chock is used with a spring line for mooring purposes, it is desirable that it be positioned at a location along the boat that will cause the boat to pivot about the correct point into its allotted space at the mooring. To this end, there have been provided roller chocks which are suitable for mounting on elongated tracks. Such chocks are provided with a slider member which holds the chock upon its track while it is moved along the track. When the chock is in the desired position, a set screw on the slider is tightened to hold the chock against the track in that position. Conventional adjustable chocks of the type that ride in tracks, have a body connected to the slider by primary screws extending through the chock rollers, into the slider. Consequently, bending moments applied to the rollers are borne to a substantial extent by the screws. This can result in the bending of the screws and the damage to the screw threads wich makes it difficult to remove the screws and to visually ascertain whether the screws were properly tightened, etc.
Thus, there has been a need in the art to provide an improved non-chafing roller chock and, also, an improved roller chock of the type that can be adjustably positioned on a track.